2011 Local racing series - how to train? (Read 391 times)

Next year I want to compete in our local series. There are a total of 15 events, 5 at each points level. You get points for your best 3 races at each level. Hence, participation matters, although not as much as performance. Most events are 5 and 10Ks, a couple shorter and one half marathon. No racing over the summer. 

To give you an idea, the 2010 series looked like  this (it's similar every year):

http://www.proracegroup.com/valley10.html

The first race, a 6 mile event, is January 8. I'm itching to start. So, two questions:

1) How does one train for such a thing? Carry on as usual (run lots, mostly easy, etc.)? 

2) I just ran a hard marathon, although I feel pretty good. Jogged up and down the hall a little at work today, I think I can start slow running again tomorrow. What should I do between now and the January 8 race? Should I forget the first race?

I found this by Jim2 - there are some good ideas:

http://www.hillrunner.com/jim2/id41.html

Yes, you need to recover for your marathon but you can start to ramp up miles (slow miles) soon and can maintain your fitness for that first race. I think if you keep your miles up, you can maintain or even improve your times through the season. Remember, a race is speedwork so be careful with the speed work outs right before and right after races. You need to stay healthy. I think a weekly dose of critical velocity reps or tempo work is critical with some lower volume speedwork like 4 X 200 fast. This will keep you fit with out eroding your base. It is nice to get in a weekly long run. You have to listen to your body, but I would not be hammering a lot of higher volume fast intervals especially when racing more often as too much anaerobic work will cause you to regress. You can do this and it sounds fun, but training will be more consistent as you really don't have a goal race you can peak for. Your goal is to stay fit and healthy throughout the whole series. AND the best way to do this is to keep your miles consistent and throw in some challenging but not "hero" work outs.

Jim has some nice comments. I disagree with his thoughts on marathon training and need for fast speedwork to do well. Arrgghh!